thinking of upgrades for my G3

question, my wife just started a home business that requires her to access a web site that doesn't like our mac. The help(less) desk says macs shouldn't have been able to work there at all (darned WinTelists )...

We're running OS 9.1 on a G3 (beige). I'm considering options such as acquiring a PC emulator to getting her one of *those* machines for her work... the biggest restraint will be costs, but I'm looking for any and all info I can get...

question, my wife just started a home business that requires her to access a web site that doesn't like our mac. The help(less) desk says macs shouldn't have been able to work there at all (darned WinTelists )...

We're running OS 9.1 on a G3 (beige). I'm considering options such as acquiring a PC emulator to getting her one of *those* machines for her work... the biggest restraint will be costs, but I'm looking for any and all info I can get...

Any input/suggestions would be *greatly* appreciated

Thanks

Click to expand...

Are you using Internet Explorer? If not, I would start. It won't solve all of your problems but it should help a bit. As for running Virtual PC on a Beige G3, I wouldn't suggest it if you want to maintain any sort of productivity. I tried to run it on my computer and it was if I was running a 286. If you need a PC for work, I'd suggest picking up an inexpensive PC rather than installing VPC. Of course, if you do go the PC route, just make sure to keep on top of the Windows security updates and installing a firewall and doing frequent virus checks will help your PC hum along nicely.

Using Virtual PC on a beige G3 would be an exercise in patience. My dual G4/800 running Virtual PC with Windows 98SE is useful but not quick. The DirectX diagnostics (dxdiag) report ~533 MHz Pentium MMX. Imagine your machine, which doesn't have the second processor that Virtual PC uses. Even an older, reliable PC would be better.

VPC runs faster on OS 9 than OS X so stay on 9 to get a little bit more ooomph! out of VPC. So if you decide to go the VPC route go to Other World Computing (http://eshop.macsales.com/) and get a 700 MHz G4 upgrade for $300 (they have faster, but you are trying to stay cheap) and then max out your RAM to whatever it can handle. Don't worry about the video card as VPC can't use it. Make sure you have at least 3 GB free on your HD (that's for installation room... probably want another GB free for swap file). Then slap VPC on your system with Win 98 SE (newer OS=slower, though some people say Win 2K is decent on the right hardware, but XP will be a dog). Can't remember how much memory you need to allocate to the VPC program, but whatever Windows isn't using should go to the VPC program itself... been too long since I used OS 9.

question, my wife just started a home business that requires her to access a web site that doesn't like our mac. The help(less) desk says macs shouldn't have been able to work there at all (darned WinTelists )...

We're running OS 9.1 on a G3 (beige). I'm considering options such as acquiring a PC emulator to getting her one of *those* machines for her work... the biggest restraint will be costs, but I'm looking for any and all info I can get...

Any input/suggestions would be *greatly* appreciated

Thanks

Click to expand...

Do a search to find out how to enable the "Debug Menu" in Safari. Then change your agent to "Windows MSIE 6.0." That will trick the website into thinking you are running IE 6 on Windows.

well, looks like the likelihood is high towards getting my wife a PC to do her home business... but, I get to keep my mac, so I won't complain

for whatever reason, the site my wife needs to acess won't provide full functionality with the mac (neither IE 5 nor Netscape 6.2 would give us what we needed)...

a friend of mine says he can set her up a box that'll meet her needs... cheap, cheap... figure all I'll need to do is configure the dial-up apps and add a splitter to the line so we don't have to mess with unplugging the machine we want for web access...

I'm in the same boat to some extent - so instead of waiting for rev 2 G5 AND VPC 7.0... I broke down and bough a PC to aid with some school work (most MBA textbooks come with stats stuff that is all Windows based). So it is the really expensive version of Virtual PC!

BTW - I run VPC on a B/W G3 (with a 550mhz G4 upgrade 1 gig ram and OS 9.2.2) - that alone made the price tag for a PC worth while.

On a side note - I'd personally, not run my home business with a lowest bidder (i.e. cheap) machine... so for my 2 cents....

Best Buy had a HP Pavillion a520n 2.2 gig AMD athalon 3200+, 512 ram and tons of other goodies (check it out)... I pained me much to do it... given the $670 price tag I felt the wounds would heal. Now if I can only get all my digital photos over to it... it is one sweet DVD burner!

(any netwoking advice to move jpgs from Mac to PC would be smiled upon)

Iriejedi

boz2004 said:

well, looks like the likelihood is high towards getting my wife a PC to do her home business... but, I get to keep my mac, so I won't complain

for whatever reason, the site my wife needs to acess won't provide full functionality with the mac (neither IE 5 nor Netscape 6.2 would give us what we needed)...

a friend of mine says he can set her up a box that'll meet her needs... cheap, cheap... figure all I'll need to do is configure the dial-up apps and add a splitter to the line so we don't have to mess with unplugging the machine we want for web access...

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